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Willow beamed and linked arms with Celeste.
Celeste pretended to be annoyed, but Cullen could tell she wasn’t.
Sunny gasped. “Willow, I thought it might be Fox you were in love with. It wasn’t, was it? You’re in love with Celeste.”
Willow shrugged, but she glowed. “Now Fox is otherwise engaged, Celeste’s just going to have to put up with me for companionship.”
She appeared mighty pleased with herself, Cullen noted, and Celeste was quietly glowing too.
“I’m so touched to be here to witness this union,” Celeste said.
“You ought to be,” Cullen teased. “Since you had such a big hand in it.”
She threw him a chastising glance, humming happily. Lifting the cushion, she leveled it, arranging the objects they’d chosen to fasten to one another: two red ribbons and two ornately-carved silver Celtic rings. “Ready?”
“Yes,” they replied in unison.
“Just one thing. I have to ask.” She cleared her throat. “As your witness and your mentor, I want to know if this binding of hearts and bodies means you’ll be disappearing off together. You know, I’d like some advance warning.”
“We’re happy here, for the time being,” Cullen replied, his mind drifting to images of the high seas, Sunny in his arms aboard a magnificent vessel as it carved its way through the ocean. They had the means to do it now, more than enough with what his mother had left for him. Perhaps they would pursue that adventure, perhaps they wouldn’t. Time would tell.
Celeste tutted. “I didn’t bring you together to have you race off again.”
She was teasing.
“The only thing you can be sure of in life is your heart,” Sunny added provocatively, squeezing his hand, “and where it leads, you will follow.”
Oh yes, he liked the promise in her eyes. There were many adventures to be had yet with his ladylove.
Celeste chuckled under her breath, then she blinked her eyes into the ever-brightening sky and presented them with the cushion. “The time is right.”
He lifted the first ribbon, turning back to Sunny. “Blood of my blood,” he recited and tied the red ribbon around Sunny’s wrist, “and bone
of my bone,” he slipped the ring on her finger. “I bind myself to thee and wherever we wander, I will return to this spot each midsummer’s day to renew my vow to walk by your side.”
Celeste offered the cushion to Sunny.
She lifted the second red ribbon. “Blood of my blood...” Her hand shook. He grasped it in his, steadying her, and she finished the job, smiling at him. “And bone of my bone.” She slipped the ring onto his finger, and he clutched both her hands in his. “I bind myself to you, now and forever.”
“My hero,” she added in a whisper.
“No,” he responded. “You’re my hero.”
When her eyebrows lifted, he nodded.
“Yes, yes, I understand now, in this world a woman can be a hero too, perhaps in my world too, but I did not see it then.”
Willow whooped and Celeste cheered.
Then Celeste wiped a tear from her eyes. “Congratulations. I’m so glad to witness this and I wish you every happiness.” She placed her hand over theirs.
“Oh,” Willow blurted. “I nearly forgot–the broom! You have to jump the broom. It’s tradition. We left it in the car.”
She turned away and darted back to where she’d parked her car, returning a minute later with an old-fashioned broomstick fashioned from a stripped branch and a bundle of twigs, which she set down on the grass in front of them.
“Is it supposed to be a witch’s broom?” he quizzed.
Willow shot him a look of mock annoyance. “Hush now, it’s all we had.”
